E D U C AT I O N

LI T T LE B I T S e d u c a t i o n C O M M UNI T Y c a s e st u d y

School Classroom

By
Michael Wilkinson
Title
Math & Science Teacher
O rga n i z at i o n
Fieldston Ethical Culture, Lower School
Bronx, NY
Age Levels
3rd Grade
l i tt l e B i ts P r o d u cts Us e d
Workshop Set (modified)
Dat e
May 2014
Michael wilkinson
Math and Science Teacher
Fieldston Ethical Culture, Lower School

Michael Wilkinson has been

teaching math and science for
nearly thirty years. He teaches
3rd through 5th math and science
at Fieldston Lower School in the
Bronx for the past 14 years. He
taught 4th-6th grade math and sci-
ence at the Bank Street School For
Children in New York City prior
to that. Michael is a curriculum
innovator and constantly seeks to
improve practice, creating engag-
ing, developmentally appropriate
learning environments for his stu-
dents. Michael creates a learning
environment where his students are
actively engaged in scientific inquiry - designing their own experiments and engineering lab apparatus
to collect and analyze authentic data.

Michael is active in the integration of technology in his work with students, making use of various statis-
tical and data collection software and sensing probes. His students design and build much of their own
lab apparatus, frequently including littleBits modules in their designs. His students also engage in online
discussion forums and class blogging. Michael is active in the social media community engaging in dis-
cussions about STEAM education best practices and is active in the NASA Social community. Michael
blogs on space exploration and math education and is an accomplished photographer and amateur
astronomer. He is a NASA Master Teacher and curriculum developer.

Who were the key people in your

organization that made this project
possible?

Rosemarie Buzzeo, Math Science Coordinator

Harry Sunshine and Alexa Shikar - 3rd grade Teachers
Jessica Fiewes and Jamie Leeds - Assistant Teachers
Lydia Fouto - shop teacher
Michael Wilkinson (author)
How did you learn about littleBits and
what made you decide to implement them
into your program/class?

I was introduced through a teacher meet up (Educator Discovery Workshop). After playing with the
materials, I immediately recognized their potential as an “organic” classroom supply that is infinitely
reconfigurable to meet whatever engineering needs of the students. I was also very much drawn to the
gender neutral presentation.

Explain how you incorporated littleBits

into your program/class? Do you have an
outline of your process?

The littleBits set was used to run our 3rd grade ‘Creature Project’ unit for two classes, totaling 44 students.
The project was split into the following class periods:

1. One session for student driven open exploration: usually I split the class into groups of 3-4 children
with 2 power modules and an equal number of inputs and outputs, with a few wires. About 8-10 mod-
ules per group. I challenge them to try different combinations and understand the order of operations to
grasp functionality.

2. Two sessions of guided challenges. For example, I’ll ask them to ‘make something that lights up’, ‘can
be controlled with motion’. The task cards on the website are similar to how we run this activity.

3. One session to introduce the

project. The students were asked
to build a creature/structure that The littleBits library was
used to run our 3rd
used a variety of materials. They
were given $75 of play money to
purchase materials and they had
to use knowledge of currency
and mathematics in order to keep
within their budget. These topics
grade ‘Creature Project’
were addressed before this unit began. The students worked in pairs. The teachers explained what ma-
terials they could purchase, including wheels, craft materials, and littleBits. Recycled and found materials
could be used free of charge. The students did some initial brainstorming on they wanted to build and
considered materials/pricing they would need to create the creatures.

4. One session for shopping for materials. The students bought the materials with play money, checked
out with the ‘cashier’ teacher and keep track of their budget. The littleBits modules were ‘leased’ and
were set at a higher amount than the basic materials. Students had to factor in different modules +
power to purchase using their knowledge of circuitry and engineering.

5. Four sessions (about a week) for construction and iteration of the creature.

6. One session using educreations (iPad app). Students narrated their projects and explained the de-
sign process using the voice capture function on the iPad.
 What worked well?

We factored in plenty of time for the students to experiment, revise and adapt it. Some children went
through three different designs before they ended up with their final project that worked (ex. 4wheel
soda car; captured this on the app- can we see copy?).

Everyone was successful in the end and the groups were happy with their outcomes. The best part was
that these were all kid driven projects and outcomes; all ideas and engineering decisions came out of
their imaginations, which is very important.

Through this project, students gained insight on how circuits work, which led to connections in science on
how to connect the littleBits to the nervous system.
This was a STEAM project – engineering and art were a big part of it.

A Through this project,

students gained insight A
on how circuits work,
which led to connections
in science on how to con-
nect the littleBits to the
nervous system.
 What was a challenge?

Orchestrating a large group of kids and projects was the biggest challenge. Would be even more
challenging for a school that doesn’t collaborate well. Internally, finding time for the teachers who were
involved to meet and collaborate was difficult.

A We used trays to keep

the modules organized A
during class.
 What has been the response of your
students/community?

The children loved the projects; they were very proud of their creations. They embraced the process of it
and were able to discuss sticking points and how they overcame it. Everyone felt successful even if they
had real challenges. They really owned it.

Parents and other teachers were also appreciative of the students’ work. The projects were on display for
a few weeks for the whole school to see and the project was referenced throughout the fall, especially
at parent conferences and staff development meetings. We use it as an example for how we envision
Fieldston moving towards as a school.

The littleBits modules were well received. The students loved working with them; many went home and
had their parents buy them to use at home! Older siblings often commented on how their 3rd grade
siblings were raving about them.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what this group does next year. Now that they have familiarity with
the modules, the students will do great things and be able to apply them in a lot of different ways.

A 4-wheel drive soda bot-

tle: The students (2 third
graders) wanted to make
something that moved. They
knew they wanted to use the
motors. Using 4 motors was
an expensive item for their
budget, so they needed
use more "found" materi-
als. They tried mounting
the motors on a variety of
chassis made from small
boxes, but always had a
problem with rigidity. The
soda bottle turned out to
be well suited for mounting
their motors.
How would you summarize what you’ve
learned in implementing your littleBits
class?

Time is really important to have the process unfold. Adults have to allow children to experiment, make
mistakes and figure out how to work through them. At the end of the day, this is a learning experience:
the real learning was having the time to reflect on their design, how to fix it and how to improve.

Did you upload projects or lessons to

our website?

We chose to use the educreations over the littleBits website due to comfort level of the 3rd graders to
the app. They also didn’t need to know how to type to do it; they can annotate and point at images on
the screens and record their narration. This software supported their reflection better; project site doesn’t
have that/not kid friendly.
What standards (if any) did you
incorporate into your lessons/programs?

Private school- none incorporated directly.

Addresses engineering, problem solving, finding solutions to problem, cause/effect, energy, presenting/
communication/articulation/documentation of work (we’d need to look into this more)

What are your future plans for

littleBits use?

The tech department is starting Tinker Tuesdays (similar to STEAM Salons) to represent a maker space.
They are also developing programming curriculum to incorporate logic and arduino.

I always look to littleBits as an organic material in the classroom, so it can be incorporated in any
lessons. Ex. UV LEDs to look at pollen in flowers and exploring the light spectrum. There’s no ‘littleBits’
project; it’s a material that is always available for us. It’s very much a kid directed classroom.